Disruption of lysosomal nutrient sensing scaffold contributes to pathogenesis of a fatal neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease.

The ceroid lipofuscinosis neuronal 1 (CLN1) disease, formerly called infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, is a fatal hereditary neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder. This disease is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the CLN1 gene, encoding palmitoyl-protein thioesterase-1 (PPT1). PPT1 catalyzes depalmitoylation of S-palmitoylated proteins for degradation and clearance by lysosomal hydrolases. Numerous proteins, especially in the brain, require dynamic S-palmitoylation (palmitoylation-depalmitoylation cycles) for endosomal trafficking to their destination. While 23 palmitoyl-acyl transferases in the mammalian genome catalyze S-palmitoylation, depalmitoylation is catalyzed by thioesterases such as PPT1. Despite these discoveries, the pathogenic mechanism of CLN1 disease has remained elusive. Here, we report that in the brain of Cln1-/- mice, which mimic CLN1 disease, the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex-1 (mTORC1) kinase is hyperactivated. The activation of mTORC1 by nutrients requires its anchorage to lysosomal limiting membrane by Rag GTPases and Ragulator complex. These proteins form the lysosomal nutrient sensing scaffold to which mTORC1 must attach to activate. We found that in Cln1-/- mice, two constituent proteins of the Ragulator complex (vacuolar (H+)-ATPase and Lamtor1) require dynamic S-palmitoylation for endosomal trafficking to the lysosomal limiting membrane. Intriguingly, Ppt1 deficiency in Cln1-/- mice misrouted these proteins to the plasma membrane disrupting the lysosomal nutrient sensing scaffold. Despite this defect, mTORC1 was hyperactivated via the IGF1/PI3K/Akt-signaling pathway, which suppressed autophagy contributing to neuropathology. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of PI3K/Akt suppressed mTORC1 activation, restored autophagy, and ameliorated neurodegeneration in Cln1-/- mice. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized role of Cln1/Ppt1 in regulating mTORC1 activation and suggest that IGF1/PI3K/Akt may be a targetable pathway for CLN1 disease.

Ppt1-deficiency dysregulates lysosomal Ca++ homeostasis contributing to pathogenesis in a mouse model of CLN1 disease.

Inactivating mutations in the PPT1 gene encoding palmitoyl-protein thioesterase-1 (PPT1) underlie the CLN1 disease, a devastating neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder. The mechanism of pathogenesis underlying CLN1 disease has remained elusive. PPT1 is a lysosomal enzyme, which catalyzes the removal of palmitate from S-palmitoylated proteins (constituents of ceroid lipofuscin) facilitating their degradation and clearance by lysosomal hydrolases. Thus, it has been proposed that Ppt1-deficiency leads to lysosomal accumulation of ceroid lipofuscin leading to CLN1 disease. While S-palmitoylation is catalyzed by palmitoyl acyltransferases (called ZDHHCs), palmitoyl-protein thioesterases (PPTs) depalmitoylate these proteins. We sought to determine the mechanism by which Ppt1-deficiency may impair lysosomal degradative function leading to infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis pathogenesis. Here, we report that in Ppt1-/- mice, which mimic CLN1 disease, low level of inositol 3-phosphate receptor-1 (IP3R1) that mediates Ca++ transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the lysosome dysregulated lysosomal Ca++ homeostasis. Intriguingly, the transcription factor nuclear factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic 4 (NFATC4), which regulates IP3R1-expression, required S-palmitoylation for trafficking from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. We identified two palmitoyl acyltransferases, ZDHHC4 and ZDHHC8, which catalyzed S-palmitoylation of NFATC4. Notably, in Ppt1-/- mice, reduced ZDHHC4 and ZDHHC8 levels markedly lowered S-palmitoylated NFATC4 (active) in the nucleus, which inhibited IP3R1-expression, thereby dysregulating lysosomal Ca++ homeostasis. Consequently, Ca++ -dependent lysosomal enzyme activities were markedly suppressed. Impaired lysosomal degradative function impaired autophagy, which caused lysosomal storage of undigested cargo. Importantly, IP3R1-overexpression in Ppt1-/- mouse fibroblasts ameliorated this defect. Our results reveal a previously unrecognized role of Ppt1 in regulating lysosomal Ca++ homeostasis and suggest that this defect contributes to pathogenesis of CLN1 disease.

Ablation of microRNA-155 and neuroinflammation in a mouse model of CLN1-disease.

Infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL), also known as CLN1-disease, is a devastating neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder (LSD), caused by inactivating mutations in the CLN1 gene. The Cln1-/- mice, which mimic INCL, manifest progressive neuroinflammation contributing to neurodegeneration. However, the underlying mechanism of neuroinflammation in INCL and in Cln1-/- mice has remained elusive. Previously, it has been reported that microRNA-155 (miR-155) regulates inflammation and miR profiling in Cln1-/- mouse brain showed that the level of miR-155 was upregulated. Thus, we sought to determine whether ablation of miR-155 in Cln1-/- mice may suppress neuroinflammation in these mice. Towards this goal, we generated Cln1-/-/miR-155-/- double-knockout mice and evaluated the inflammatory signatures in the brain. We found that the brains of double-KO mice manifest progressive neuroinflammatory changes virtually identical to those found in Cln1-/- mice. We conclude that ablation of miR-155 in Cln1-/- mice does not alter the neuroinflammatory trajectory in INCL mouse model.

In a mouse model of INCL reduced S-palmitoylation of cytosolic thioesterase APT1 contributes to microglia proliferation and neuroinflammation.

S-palmitoylation is a reversible posttranslational modification in which a 16-carbon saturated fatty acid (generally palmitate) is attached to specific cysteine residues in polypeptides via thioester linkage. Dynamic S-palmitoylation (palmitoylation-depalmitoylation), like phosphorylation-dephosphorylation, regulates the function of numerous proteins, especially in the brain. While a family of 23 palmitoyl-acyl transferases (PATS), commonly known as ZDHHCs, catalyze S-palmitoylation of proteins, the thioesterases, localized either in the cytoplasm (eg, APT1) or in the lysosome (eg, PPT1) mediate depalmitoylation. Previously, we reported that APT1 requires dynamic S-palmitoylation for shuttling between the cytosol and the plasma membrane. APT1 depalmitoylated H-Ras to regulate its signaling pathway that stimulates cell proliferation. Although we demonstrated that APT1 catalyzed its own depalmitoylation, the ZDHHC(s) that S-palmitoylated APT1 had remained unidentified. We report here that ZDHHC5 and ZDHHC23 catalyze APT1 S-palmitoylation. Intriguingly, lysosomal Ppt1-deficiency in Cln1-/- mouse, a reliable animal model of INCL, markedly reduced ZDHHC5 and ZDHHC23 levels. Remarkably, in the brain of these mice decreased ZDHHC5 and ZDHHC23 levels suppressed membrane-bound APT1, thereby, increasing plasma membrane-localized H-Ras, which activated its signaling pathway stimulating microglia proliferation. Increased inflammatory cytokines produced by microglia together with increased complement C1q level contributed to the transformation of astrocytes to neurotoxic A1 phenotype. Importantly, neuroinflammation was ameliorated by treatment of Cln1-/- mice with a PPT1-mimetic small molecule, N-tert(Butyl)hydroxylamine (NtBuHA). Our results revealed a novel pathway to neuropathology in an INCL mouse model and uncovered a previously unrecognized mechanism of the neuroprotective actions of NtBuHA and its potential as a drug target.

Cln1-mutations suppress Rab7-RILP interaction and impair autophagy contributing to neuropathology in a mouse model of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis.

Infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL) is a devastating neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease (LSD) caused by inactivating mutations in the CLN1 gene. CLN1 encodes palmitoyl-protein thioesterase-1 (PPT1), a lysosomal enzyme that catalyzes the deacylation of S-palmitoylated proteins to facilitate their degradation and clearance by lysosomal hydrolases. Despite the discovery more than two decades ago that CLN1 mutations causing PPT1-deficiency underlies INCL, the precise molecular mechanism(s) of pathogenesis has remained elusive. Here, we report that autophagy is dysregulated in Cln1-/- mice, which mimic INCL and in postmortem brain tissues as well as cultured fibroblasts from INCL patients. Moreover, Rab7, a small GTPase, critical for autophagosome-lysosome fusion, requires S-palmitoylation for trafficking to the late endosomal/lysosomal membrane where it interacts with Rab-interacting lysosomal protein (RILP), essential for autophagosome-lysosome fusion. Notably, PPT1-deficiency in Cln1-/- mice, dysregulated Rab7-RILP interaction and preventing autophagosome-lysosome fusion, which impaired degradative functions of the autolysosome leading to INCL pathogenesis. Importantly, treatment of Cln1-/- mice with a brain-penetrant, PPT1-mimetic, small molecule, N-tert (butyl)hydroxylamine (NtBuHA), ameliorated this defect. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized role of CLN1/PPT1 in autophagy and suggest that small molecules functionally mimicking PPT1 may have therapeutic implications.

Dopamine ß Hydroxylase (DBH) is a potential modifier gene associated with Parkinson's disease in Eastern India.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the debilitating movement disorder, distinguished by dopaminergic and norepinephrinergic neurodegeneration. Apart from candidate gene mutations, several modifier loci have been reported to be associated with the disease manifestation. The Dopamine ß-Hydroxylase (DBH) maintains cellular dopamine content and regulates dopamine turn over in neurons. Genetic polymorphisms of DBH are associated with PD and are found to alter plasma DBH activity in patients compared to healthy controls. Therefore, DBH activity in plasma could be a potential and easily detectable biomarkers for alteration of dopaminergic neuronal function in PD. METHODS: Plasma DBH activity has been assessed among PD cases and age-matched controls to identify correlation with PD. To elucidate the role of DBH polymorphisms in Eastern Indian PD patients, three SNPs (rs1611115, rs1108580 and rs129882) were selected and screened by PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing analysis. RESULTS: The T-allele of rs129882 was more prevalent among patients than controls posing risk (p-value = 0.02, OR = 1.404, 95% CI = 1.047-1.883) towards PD. The dual-Luciferase assay in SHSY5Y cell line revealed that the T-allele of rs129882 increases Luciferase signal (p = 0.0269). However, the rs1611115 and rs1108580 did not show association with PD; plasma DBH activity was not significantly different between patients and controls (p-value > 0.05). Haplotypes constructed with three SNPs showed that the CAT haplotype to pose risk, TAC haplotype to provide protection against early disease onset and CGT being protective against non-motor symptoms. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that DBH might influence the susceptibility of PD.

Role of Apolipoprotein E, Cathepsin D, and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Parkinson's Disease: A Study from Eastern India.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with complex etiology. Both genetic and environmental factors play significant role. Apart from candidate genes, some modifier genes have been reported to be associated with the altered risk of PD. Previous studies have identified Apolipoprotein E (APOE), Cathepsin D (CTSD), and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) as key players of neurodegenerative pathways with their variants associated with different neurodegenerative diseases. Hence, this study aims to identify the potential role of these modifier genes in the pathogenesis of PD among Eastern Indian PD patients. A case-control study was performed using 302 clinically diagnosed PD patients and 304 ethnically matched controls. Promoter SNPs of APOE (rs449647, rs405509) and BDNF (rs56164415), and coding SNPs of APOE (rs429358, rs7412 resulting in ε2, ε3, and ε4 alleles), CTSD (rs17571), and BDNF (rs6265) were analyzed by PCR-RFLP and bidirectional sequencing. The effect of rs56164415 on BDNF expression was characterized by Luciferase assay. APOEε4 allele was significantly overrepresented (p value = 0.0003) among PD patients, whereas ε3 allele was predominant in the control population. The promoter haplotype (A-rs449647, G-rs405509) of APOE was preponderant among female PD patients posing risk. No association was found for CTSD polymorphism. The 'T/T' genotype of BDNF rs56164415 was overrepresented (p-value = 0.02) among early onset PD patients. Expression of BDNF for the 'T/T' variant was significantly lower (p-value = 0.012) than the 'C/C' variant, suggesting a possible role in PD pathogenesis. This study suggests that APOE and BDNF may serve as modifier loci among eastern Indian PD patients.

Cln3-mutations underlying juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis cause significantly reduced levels of Palmitoyl-protein thioesterases-1 (Ppt1)-protein and Ppt1-enzyme activity in the lysosome.

Mutations in at least 13 different genes (called CLNs) underlie various forms of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs), a group of the most common neurodegenerative lysosomal storage diseases. While inactivating mutations in the CLN1 gene, encoding palmitoyl-protein thioesterases-1 (PPT1), cause infantile NCL (INCL), those in the CLN3 gene, encoding a protein of unknown function, underlie juvenile NCL (JNCL). PPT1 depalmitoylates S-palmitoylated proteins (constituents of ceroid) required for their degradation by lysosomal hydrolases and PPT1-deficiency causes lysosomal accumulation of autofluorescent ceroid leading to INCL. Because intracellular accumulation of ceroid is a characteristic of all NCLs, a common pathogenic link for these diseases has been suggested. It has been reported that CLN3-mutations suppress the exit of cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (CI-M6PR) from the trans Golgi network (TGN). Because CI-M6PR transports soluble proteins such as PPT1 from the TGN to the lysosome, we hypothesized that CLN3-mutations may cause lysosomal PPT1-insufficiency contributing to JNCL pathogenesis. Here, we report that the lysosomes in Cln3-mutant mice, which mimic JNCL, and those in cultured cells from JNCL patients, contain significantly reduced levels of Ppt1-protein and Ppt1-enzyme activity and progressively accumulate autofluorescent ceroid. Furthermore, in JNCL fibroblasts the V0a1 subunit of v-ATPase, which regulates lysosomal acidification, is mislocalized to the plasma membrane instead of its normal location on lysosomal membrane. This defect dysregulates lysosomal acidification, as we previously reported in Cln1 -/- mice, which mimic INCL. Our findings uncover a previously unrecognized role of CLN3 in lysosomal homeostasis and suggest that CLN3-mutations causing lysosomal Ppt1-insuffiiciency may at least in part contribute to JNCL pathogenesis.

Emerging new roles of the lysosome and neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses.

Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses (NCLs), commonly known as Batten disease, constitute a group of the most prevalent neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). Mutations in at least 13 different genes (called CLNs) cause various forms of NCLs. Clinically, the NCLs manifest early impairment of vision, progressive decline in cognitive and motor functions, seizures and a shortened lifespan. At the cellular level, all NCLs show intracellular accumulation of autofluorescent material (called ceroid) and progressive neuron loss. Despite intense studies the normal physiological functions of each of the CLN genes remain poorly understood. Consequently, the development of mechanism-based therapeutic strategies remains challenging. Endolysosomal dysfunction contributes to pathogenesis of virtually all LSDs. Studies within the past decade have drastically changed the notion that the lysosomes are merely the terminal degradative organelles. The emerging new roles of the lysosome include its central role in nutrient-dependent signal transduction regulating metabolism and cellular proliferation or quiescence. In this review, we first provide a brief overview of the endolysosomal and autophagic pathways, lysosomal acidification and endosome-lysosome and autophagosome-lysosome fusions. We emphasize the importance of these processes as their dysregulation leads to pathogenesis of many LSDs including the NCLs. We also describe what is currently known about each of the 13 CLN genes and their products and how understanding the emerging new roles of the lysosome may clarify the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of the NCLs. Finally, we discuss the current and emerging therapeutic strategies for various NCLs.

Bridging Links between Long Noncoding RNA HOTAIR and HPV Oncoprotein E7 in Cervical Cancer Pathogenesis.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 oncoprotein E7 plays a major role in cervical carcinogenesis by interacting with and functionally inactivating various host regulatory molecules. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) HOTAIR is one such regulator that recruits chromatin remodelling complex PRC2, creating gene silencing H3K27 me3 marks. Hence, we hypothesized that HOTAIR could be a potential target of E7, in HPV16 related cervical cancers (CaCx). We identified significant linear trend of progressive HOTAIR down-regulation through HPV negative controls, HPV16 positive non-malignants and CaCx samples. Majority of CaCx cases portrayed HOTAIR down-regulation in comparison to HPV negative controls, with corresponding up-regulation of HOTAIR target, HOXD10, and enrichment of cancer related pathways. However, a small subset had significantly higher HOTAIR expression, concomitant with high E7 expression and enrichment of metastatic pathways. Expression of HOTAIR and PRC2-complex members (EZH2 and SUZ12), showed significant positive correlation with E7 expression in CaCx cases and E7 transfected C33A cell line, suggestive of interplay between E7 and HOTAIR. Functional inactivation of HOTAIR by direct interaction with E7 could also be predicted by in silico analysis and confirmed by RNA-Immunoprecipitation. Our study depicts one of the causal mechanisms of cervical carcinogenesis by HPV16 E7, through modulation of HOTAIR expression and function.

DJ-1 variants in Indian Parkinson's disease patients.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative movement disorder. Among the candidate genes, DJ-1 accounts for about 1% of the cases in different populations. We aim to find the contribution of the gene towards PD among Indians. By screening DJ-1 in 308 PD patients of eastern India and 248 ethnically matched controls, a total of 21 nucleotide variants - including two nonsynonymous changes - were detected. p.Arg98Gln was identified in 6 unrelated patients and 2 controls while p.Val35Ile, a novel change, was found only in 2 unrelated patients. A SNP (rs7517357) was observed to be moderately associated with increased risk of PD (p< 0.05). The deletion allele (g.168_185del) of a known 18 bp del/ins/dup polymorphism was found to be over represented (p< 0.05) among older patients (> 40 years) compared to the controls (> 45 years). Two of the patients, also heterozygotes for PINK1 mutation, had more severe disease phenotypes, consistent with the reported interaction between PINK1 and DJ-1 gene products [19]. Our results demonstrate that up to 3.9% (12/308) of PD patients of eastern India harbor DJ-1 variants that should be explored further for any causal relationship with PD.

Evaluation of the role of LRRK2 gene in Parkinson's disease in an East Indian cohort.

Leucine rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene defects cause Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, LRRK2 has also been shown by genome wide association (GWA) studies to be a susceptibility gene for the disease. In India mutations in LRRK2 is a rare cause of PD. We, therefore, genotyped 64 SNPs across LRRK2 in 161 control samples and finally studied 6 haplotype tagging SNPs for association-based study on 300 cases and 446 ethnically matched controls to explore the potential role of LRRK2 as a susceptibility gene in PD for East Indians. We did not find any significant allele/ genotype or haplotype associations with PD suggesting that common genetic variants within LRRK2 play limited role in modulating PD among East Indians. In addition, we also screened for the common mutations (viz. p.R1441C, p.R1441G, p.R1441H, p.Y1699C, p.G2019S), and a risk variant common among Asians (p.G2385R) but did not observe any of the above mentioned variants in our cohort. Our study, therefore, strongly suggests that LRRK2 has minimal role as a candidate and susceptibility gene in PD pathogenesis among East Indians.

Evaluation of PINK1 variants in Indian Parkinson's disease patients.

Mutations in PINK1 have been identified in familial and sporadic cases of early onset Parkinson's disease (PD). To determine the contribution of PINK1 variants in Indian PD patients, the gene was screened in 250 patients and 205 ethnically matched controls by polymerase chain reaction, single-stranded conformation polymorphism and DNA sequencing. Two potentially pathogenic variants (Arg246Gln & Arg276Gln) were detected in the heterozygous state in 5 patients; none of the patients carried homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations. In addition, 13 other variants were identified, including a known polymorphism (Ala340Thr), a few synonymous or intronic changes, none of which are likely to be pathogenic. Unlike the Chinese population, the Ala340Thr variant did not show any association with PD in Indian population. Six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected from dbSNP were genotyped in 531 normal, healthy individuals representing different ethnic groups of India. Most of the SNP markers were observed to be highly heterozygous among Indians, which could be used for segregation analysis of PINK1 alleles in familial PD cases.